Follow Me!

Why I Stopped Buying Ebooks.

For my Throwback Thursday I’m bringing up this old and relevant post. It was originally titled “I stopped buying ebooks, and so should you.” may have been the most controversial one I’ve made on this blog so far, and with good reason. It also seems relevant now because it begs the question: If I’m so anti-ebook, why would I sell Jasper on the Kindle?

One, I’ll admit my view has changed somewhat in the past year. My recent publishing efforts went a long way to change this. Ebooks are definitely the simplest and most cost effective option for an indie author. In fact, I had a hard time picking out a price for the print versions of my book because Createspace had to factor in production costs. So I can see that side of the argument and certainly don’t want to wish hardships on authors who are already facing challenges in getting their book made. Should Amazon choose to abuse their power it’s not the author’s fault.

Now, I do stand by my view of not buying ebooks for myself. But that’s a personal choice, for the reasons listed in this post and my own preference for physical copies. I still own a Kindle, it’s full of books that I want to get to in time. I see the appeal of the ereader. I understand that there’s a big draw for ebooks and I don’t want to limit others based on my personal choices.

If someone wants to buy my ebook, that’s great. I’m thankful. But I’ll shell out a little more and buy your physical copy.

I’ve been meaning to write this for a while. And this goes not only for ebooks, but anything bought electronically that doesn’t include tangible items being shipped to you.

On more than one occasion, Amazon has shown the true consequences of filling up your Kindle with ebooks. You’re not truly buying books, you’re buying indefinite permission to enjoy the books. That permission can be revoked at any time, at Amazon’s discretion, and there’s nothing that you can do but hope for a refund.

The first incident (of which I’m aware) happened in 2009 surrounding digital copies of 1984 and Animal Farm. The company that sold those copies turned out not to have the copyright, and therefore shouldn’t have been selling them in the first place. Unfortunately, this was caught after many copies were purchased, so Amazon was left with these books wandering around on customers’ Kindles, infringing copyright…